Hearing last week uncovered a 12-day delay by IDPH to get on-site, insufficient level of N95 masks, and failure to provide proper hand sanitizer
Today, Senators Sue Rezin and Paul Schimpf called for additional legislative hearings concerning the Pritzker Administration’s response to the fatal COVID outbreak at the LaSalle Veterans’ Home.
“I have serious concerns about some of the information that we learned during last week’s hearing, and even more questions than before,” said Sen. Rezin (R-Morris). “The residents of the LaSalle Veterans’ Home and their families deserve answers now. We must have additional hearings to get those answers.”
“Last week’s hearing left me with more questions than answers, particularly about the decision-making process at the Illinois Department of Public Health,” said Sen. Schimpf (R-Waterloo). “Another hearing is necessary to find out what went wrong and how to insure it doesn’t happen again.”
The initial hearing on November 24 led to the release of a report by the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs outlining how the Pritzker Administration was using the wrong kind of hand sanitizer, which had a “significant impact on the transmission of COVID-19 within the facility,” according to the report. IDPH’s site visit on November 13 – 12 days after the initial outbreak – found lax health and safety protocols in place and insufficient level of protective masks for employees.
Over 200 positive cases with 28 deaths have occurred at the LaSalle Veterans’ Home since November 1, the first day of the outbreak.
A letter calling for additional hearings was sent to Senator Tom Cullerton, who chairs the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee, this morning.